Roland A. Coon was born in Fountain County, Indiana, in 1899, and is a son of Isaac W. and Dora (Balch) Coon, and a grandson of Perry Coon, the latter a lifelong farmer. Isaac W. Coon was born in Indiana and for a number of years was engaged in farming, subsequently becoming a cattle raiser and then a merchant at Shelbyville, Indiana. He was well and widely known in business circles as a man of strong character and sterling integrity, and as a citizen of public spirit. He and his wife were the parents of seven children: Amy, the widow of Orville Ehi, a farmer; Mary, the wife of Chester E. Sandefure, a well-known educator, who was superintendent of schools at North Vernon, Indiana, for fifteen years; Dan, a farmer, who married Mabel Sandefure; Perry, a business man of Terre Haute, Indiana, who married Jessie Irving; Bryan, a business man of Shelbyville, Indiana, who married Frances Vawter; Roland of this review; and Ralph, a business man of Shelbyville, who married Thelma Henry, daughter of Claude Henry, a prominent attorney of Shelbyville, and author of a legal survey on the industrial loan business of the United States.
Roland A. Coon received his education at Shelbyville, where he graduated from the high school, and at Franklin (Indiana) College, and commenced his business career as a traveling inspector for the Columbia Graphaphone Company of Toronto, Canada, with which concern he was identified for three years. He then returned to Franklin, Indiana, and entered the employ of the People's Loan Company, of which he was office manager for one year. Resigning that position, he went back to Shelbyville, his native community, and formed a connection with the Thompson Loan Company, and when the Thompson Finance Corporation was founded, in February, 1928, was made district manager. At present his headquarters are at Vincennes, where he has offices at 201 American National Bank Building, his territory covering Vincennes and Princeton, Indiana, and Lawrenceville, Illinois. The Thompson Finance Corporation is an Indiana corporation and is affiliated with the Thompson Loan Company, a sister firm, with headquarters at Shelbyville, Indiana, and other offices at Vincennes, Grangeburg, North Vernon, Seymour and Princeton, Indiana, and Lawrenceville, Illinois.
Mr. Coon is an energetic and hustling business man, who has made a thorough study of finance and loans and is broadly informed as to conditions in general and particularly in the territory over which he has charge. He is a member of the Masonic Blue Lodge at Shelbyville, Shelbyville Lodge of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks and the River Club of Lawrenceville, Illinois. During the World war he belonged to the Student Army Training Corps, and is now a member of the American Legion. His religious connection is with the Baptist Church, and his political convictions lead him to support the candidates of the Democratic party.
INDIANA ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS OF AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT Vol. 5
By Charles Roll, A.M.
The Lewis Publishing Company, 1931
HON. HARRY C. POINDEXTER, mayor of Jeffersonville, has for many years been identified with the official life of that city. He has been a business man and lawyer.
He was born at Jeffersonville, May 10, 1857, son of Gabriel and Mary F. (Willey) Poindexter, grandson of Clevias and Nancy (Holland) Poindexter, and great-grandson of Rev. Gabriel Poindexter, who was a soldier with the Virginia troops in the War of the Revolution, and afterwards came to Indiana and did the work of an itinerant Baptist preacher. The father of the present mayor of Jeffersonville was mayor of that city from 1867 to 1869. Before the Civil war he was a merchant and during his later life was engaged in fruit growing. Both he and his wife were natives of Clark County, Indiana. Mayor Poindexter's grandfather, who came to Indiana about 1820, was a pioneer brick manufacturer.
Harry C. Poindexter was one of a family of nine children. He attended the grammar and high schools of Jeffersonville and from early manhood has been interested in politics. In 1894 he was the only Republican in Clark County elected a member of the Legislature. He served a term of two years. In 1901 he became clerk of the Town of Broad Ripple and in 1903 moved to Jeffersonville, where for five years he was engaged in the canning business. In 1906 he was appointed by Gov. Frank Hanley as judge of the City Court, serving an unexpired term of nearly four years. While in that office he studied law, graduated from law school at Louisville, Kentucky, in 1909, and has carried on a general law practice. He was elected mayor of Jeffersonville in November, 1925, and for four years has given that city a splendid administration of its municipal affairs.
Mr. Poindexter is a member of the Rotary Club, Chamber of Commerce, Masonic fraternity, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, Modern Woodmen of America. He belongs to the Clark County Bar Association, was a four- minute speaker during the World war, and is a leader in the Methodist Episcopal Church, being local preacher of the Wall Street Church, which was organized in 1803.
He married Anna M. King, a native of Jackson County, Indiana. They have four children: Miss Percie E., a teacher at Jeffersonville; Miss Amy K.; Bertha L. is the wife of Homer M. Frank, cashier of the Citizens Trust Company, and has two children, Richard and Martha Jane; and Miss Mary Margaret is a teacher at Jeffersonville.
INDIANA ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS OF AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT Vol. 5
By Charles Roll, A.M.
The Lewis Publishing Company, 1931
MISS BERTHA F. POINDEXTER. To the lover of literature, the advantages of a well-selected library afford great pleasure, but all who can intelligently enjoy and truly appreciate do not possess such a collection, irrespective of how urgent may be their book-temperament. To a large extent this lack is supplied by the public library, now to be found in every progressive community. The Jeffersonville Township Public Library, located at Jeffersonville, Clark County, is a fine example of a public institution of this type that has proved of inestimable value. Its volumes cover every department of literary effort, and it not only has been notably helpful to ambitious students, but also beneficial to those of cultivated literary tastes. In Miss Bertha F. Poindexter Jeffersonville finds an ideal official as librarian, a lady whose educational, cultural and social gifts have combined to bring complete efficiency into the work, and whose patient, courteous and obliging personality has greatly endeared her to the patrons of the library.
Miss Poindexter is a native of Jeffersonville, and a daughter of Gabriel and Mary Poindexter. Her paternal grandfather was Clevias Poindexter, a native of Clark County, Indiana, who married Nancy Holland, of Indiana. Clevias Poindexter was a son of Rev. Gabriel Poindexter, a native of Virginia, who fought as a soldier in the War of the Revolution, following which he became a pioneer of Indiana, and for many years thereafter was a minister of the Baptist Church and a school teacher. Of the nine children of Gabriel and Mary Poindexter six grew to maturity and four are now living: C. E.; H. C., who is mayor of Jeffersonville; Bertha F;, of this review; and Frank C., of Indianapolis. Bertha F. Poindexter attended the high school at Jeffersonville, following which she pursued a course at Borden Institute in Clark County.
The present library association was established in 1897 by the members of the Jeffersonville Women's Clubs. The township library was taken over and with that as a nucleus the present library was started in 1900, with about 2,000 volumes. During the years that followed new books have been added from time to time, and the library now consists of about 15,000 volumes. In 1900 Miss Poindexter was elected librarian, a position which she has held continuously to the present with the exception of about twenty-one months when she was absent because of severe illness.
Miss Poindexter has been very active in all kinds of civic, social and religious work, as well as an educator, and is a member of the Indiana State and American Library Associations. She attended two summer sessions of library school at Indianapolis, where she perfected herself for work in her chosen calling and has always been a close student and omnivorous reader. She is a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution, and an honorary member of the Current Events Club, of which she was president from the time of its inception until 1900, in which year she became librarian.
The Jeffersonville Township Public Library's cornerstone for its present building was laid with Masonic ceremonies and is a monument to the club women of Jeffersonville, whose zeal, hard work and interest made it a reality. The project was first advanced in the spring of 1897, at the Woman's Literary Club, by whom the need of a new library was keenly felt. The late Miss Hannah Zulauf was one of the most enthusiastic women engaged in the early discussions and plans, and at all times was ready to put aside her personal interests to give her time and thought to the matter, which she justly deemed of great civic and educational value. Calling a meeting of the town's literary organizations, she appointed two members of each to appear at Miss Poindexter's home to discuss ways and means. The second meeting was also held at Miss Poindexter's home, about three months later, and it was decided to ask the citizens to raise $1,000, this being done because of the discovery of a law, passed in 1852, which held that if a board of directors or trustees could show $1,000 worth of books and property the board of county commissioners could turn the township library over to them. Subscriptions at five dollars a share were offered, and by November 13, 1897, the sum of $1,160 had been subscribed. A meeting was held the following day in the City Council chambers at the City Hall, and an organization was effected, Prof. D. S. Kelly, superintendent of city schools being elected president; Miss Hannah Zulauf, secretary and treasurer; and M. Z. Stannard, Miss Bertha F. Poindexter, Cord Worder, Mary K. Voigt and Eva Luke, members. The library association was incorporated, purchases of books were made in 1899, and the Indiana State Legislature passed a law turning over the township library, December l, 1900. The new management on December 17 of that year assumed charge of the library, where it was then located over the Citizens National Bank, Miss Poindexter being elected librarian October 27, 1900, again in 1901 and again in 1903. Interest had been aroused to such an extent and patrons were becoming so numerous that it was realized the old library quarters were insufficient, and a measure was introduced and passed to legalize a new site for the library in Worder Park. Misses Zulauf and Poindexter wrote letters to Hon. Andrew Carnegie requesting a donation for a library building, and finally Hon. J. E. Taggart and Prof. A. C. Goodwin wrote and were promised that a donation of $15,000 would be forthcoming. This letter was written February 15, 1902, the City Council gave its consent, and in a few weeks work on the beautiful new building of Bedford stone was on its way to construction after plans made by Arthur Loomis architect, had been accepted. The library building is one beauty spots of the Jeffersonville, and is complete in every detail, comparing favorably with those of many larger cities. It has a large and consistently increasing patronage, and has been and will continue to be of inestimable value to the people of this thriving city, both in the way of pleasure and education.
INDIANA ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS OF AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT Vol. 5
By Charles Roll, A.M.
The Lewis Publishing Company, 1931
FRANK GARDNER, who for three terms represented the Third Indiana District in Congress, is a Scottsburg attorney and in his native county laid the foundation of his political career in the fidelity that has distinguished every phase of his relations with his fellow men and the public interest.
Mr. Gardner was born in Scott County May 8, 1872, son of William and Eliza Jane (Ray) Gardner. His great-grandfather, James Gardner, on coming to America settled in South Carolina. His grandfather, George Gardner, was born in Indiana and was one of the early farmers of Scott County. George Gardner married a Miss McKnight, whose father was a soldier in the Revolutionary war. William Gardner was born in Washington County, Indiana, was a Scott County farmer, served as sergeant in Company C of the Fiftieth Indiana Infantry during the Civil war and held the offices of township trustee and county treasurer.
Frank Gardner grew up on a farm, attended country schools, was graduated in 1896 from the Borden Institute in Clark County and in 1900 received his law degree at the University of Indiana. He was admitted to the bar and began practice, but in 1901 became deputy county auditor and in 1903 began his first term as county auditor. He held that office for eight years, until 1911. From 1911 to 1917 he was county attorney of Scott County. During all this time he was carrying on a general law practice. Mr. Gardner has been a conspicuous worker in the Democratic party in the State of Indiana and from 1912 to 1922 was chairman of the Democratic county committee. He has been a careful student of affairs, an able and forceful speaker, and in 1922 he was first nominated by his party for Congress, to represent the Third Indiana District. On March 4, 1923, he entered the Sixty- eighth Congress, and by reelection served in the Sixty-ninth and Seventieth Congresses, his third term expiring March 4, 1929. He served on the committees on roads and pensions, also the important committee on insular affairs, and he was a member of the Congressional committee which investigated conditions in Porto Rico and the Virgin Islands.
Mr. Gardner during the world war was chairman of the four-minute speakers of Scott County. He is a Knight templar Mason, member of the Scottish Rite bodies at Indianapolis, and Murat Temple of the Mystic Shrine. He also belongs to the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Scottsburg Lions Club, the Scott County Historical Society, and is a Presbyterian.
INDIANA ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS OF AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT Vol. 5
By Charles Roll, A.M.
The Lewis Publishing Company, 1931
EDWARD E. COX, whose large and well ordered printing establishment at Hartford City, judicial center of Blackford County, is operated by the corporation entitled the Edward E. Cox Printer, Inc., has been actively associated with the newspaper and printing business fully forty years, and in this line of enterprise he has not only kept pace with the march of progress but has also had no minor leadership in such progress in his native State of Indiana. The corporation of which he is the president and general manager here functions as publishers of the Hartford City Daily News, but its printing plant also is one of the largest and most important devoted to specialty printing in the state. Under the resourceful direction of Mr. Cox the Hartford City Daily News has been brought to notably high standard in all phases of its communal service, and its influence is wide and potent in advancing and standing exponent of the varied interests of Blackford County and its vital county seat.
Mr. Cox was born at Tipton, Tipton County, Indiana, December 29, 1867., and is a son of the late Judge Jabez T. Cox, who became one of the leading members of the bar of Miami County, where he was long established in the practice of his profession at Peru, the county seat, where his activities included his service in the State Legislature and twelve years' administration on the bench of the Circuit Court of the Eleventh Judicial Circuit. He was a gallant young soldier of the Union in the Civil war, as a member of a regiment of Indiana volunteer infantry, and in later years he was an honored and prominent member of the Grand Army of the Republic in Indiana. Judge Cox was born in the State of Ohio, as was also his father, Aaron Cox, and he was a boy at the time of the family removal from the Buckeye State to Hamilton County, Indiana, there to gain a goodly measure of pioneer precedence. Aaron Cox served in the early days as postmaster of Noblesville, county seat of Hamilton County, and he was long established in the contracting and building business in that county. His wife, who was born in Kentucky, was a direct descendant of Daniel Boone, one of the foremost frontiersmen of American history. Judge Jabez T. Cox married Miss Jennie Price, a teacher in the Tipton public high school. She died in Canyon City, Colorado, in 1883. She was a daughter of Major James Price, who was a distinguished officer of the United States Army in the Civil war and in whose honor was named James Price Post of the Grand Army of the Republic at Tipton, he having been there engaged in the flour milling business prior to volunteering for service in the Civil war, and having there been engaged in the mercantile business many years. The two children of Judge Cox first marriage were: Inez, who became the wife of Merrill Mowbry and whose death occurred in 1898; and the subject of this review, Edward E. Cox. Judge Cox later married Miss Elizabeth Meinhardt, of Peru, Indiana, and to this union were born two children: Carl, deceased; and Mary, who is now a teacher in the public schools of Peru, Indiana.
The public schools of Tipton afforded Edward E. Cox his early education, which was advanced by his attending the Central Normal College of Indiana and also Purdue University. Prior to entering the university he had been for three years a successful teacher in the public schools of Miami County, and he was twenty-two years of age when he initiated his association with the printing and newspaper business, in 1890. His first service was as reported for the Miami County Sentinel at Peru, and after remaining one year with this paper he established his residence at Hartford City, where he purchased the plant and business of the Hartford City Telegram, of which he became editor and publisher. He discontinued publication of this weekly paper after founding the Hartford City Daily News, which he established in 1893 and over the destinies of which he has since continued in control and which under his progressive management has been developed into one of the best and most influential daily papers in this section of the state. In connection with its publishing of the Daily News the Edward E. Cox Printer, Inc., has built up one of the finest of modern job-printing plants in this part of Indiana, and this plant has developed a specially profitable business in its special department devoted to the manufacturing and printing of meat and candy wrappers of glassine and celophane papers.
In contemplating the fine modern plant of the Edward E: Cox Printer, Inc., it is interesting to note that when Mr. Cox initiated his enterprise as a newspaper publisher at Hartford City his operating quarters were established in a small upstairs room - not more than 800 square feet - in the rear of a local drug store, and the equipment was of elemental order, including an old-time Washington press, which had to be operated solely by hand. The present plant of his concern occupies an entire city block and the building is a modern structure of two stories. In the industrial department of this company has been developed a business that involves shipment of products, mainly wrappers, to all sections of the United States, to Canadian provinces and even to foreign lands. The company retains a corps of seventy-five employees, and its modern rotary presses enable it to print and ship its wrappers and other commercial printing products in carload lots.
Mr. Cox has been a veritable apostle of civic and material progress at Hartford City, both individually and through the medium of his newspaper and printing enterprise. He is an influential member of the local Chamber of Commerce and was one of the organizers and the first president of the local Kiwanis Club.
The political allegiance of Mr. Cox is given to the Democratic party, and he has been influential in its councils and campaign activities in his native state. He was for eight years representative of the Eleventh Congressional District on the Indiana Democratic state committee and he was president of the Indiana Democratic Editorial Association in 1927. In July, 1914, under the administration President Wilson, Mr. Cox was appointed postmaster of Hartford City, he having resigned his membership on the local board of education when he assumed the office of postmaster, to which he was reappointed in 1919 and the affairs of which he administered with characteristic loyalty and efficiency. He is a director of the Citizens State Bank of Hartford City.
Mr. Cox was postmaster of Hartford City in the World war period, but he found time and opportunity to give vigorous and loyal service in furthering the various patriotic activities of Blackford County, including all drives in sale of Government war bonds, etc. He was director of the Thrift Savings Stamp campaign in the county, and in this drive Blackford County went "over the top" with a record that made it ninth in rank of the ninety-two counties of the state. Mr. Cox was active also in furthering the food-conservation service in his home city and county.
Mr. Cox has been twice married, the first time to Eldora Sites, of Peru, Indiana, in 1891. To this union two children were born: Linnie, the wife of Joseph S. Smith, of Clifton Forge, Virginia; and Catharine, the wife of Ralph J. Winters, of Crawfordsville, Indiana. Mrs. Cox passed away in 1898. Mr. Cox married in 1901 Miss Nellie V. Tozier, a native of Oregon, and to this union five children were born: Margaret, wife of Henry Hayes Crimmel of Hartford City; Edward E., Jr., is actively associated with Edward E. Cox Printer, Inc., of which he is a director; Albert L. (1931) a student in the University of Indiana; Edith Alice and Elizabeth Ann, at home. Linnie, Catharine and Margaret attended Western College for Women, Oxford, Ohio, and DePauw University. Edward E., Jr., is a graduate of the Culver Military Academy and attended Lafayette College, Easton, Pennsylvania.
Mr. Cox may in a certain sense be said to have inherited a predilection for the newspaper business, for his father, the late Judge Jabez T. Cox, was for a time editor of the Frankfort Crescent, at Frankfort, Clinton and later was editor and publisher of the Tipton Times, at the judicial center of Tipton County.
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INDIANA ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS OF AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT Vol. 5
By Charles Roll, A.M.
The Lewis Publishing Company, 1931
WILBUR L. LOFTUS. In the difficult and highly specialized field of real estate and insurance few men have made more rapid strides in recent years than Wilbur L. Loftus, senior member of the firm of Loftus & La Duc, of New Albany. Mr. Loftus is a self-made man in all that the term implies, for he had few opportunities to secure an education in his youth and has gained success and recognition solely through his own initiative and resource. At present he occupies a prominent place in his line of business and is a member of the directorate of the New Albany Real Estate Board.
Wilbur L. Loftus was born at Cincinnati, Ohio, January 25,1900, and is a son of John and Anna (Heustis) Loftus. His paternal grandfather was an early settler of Indiana, coming from the East about 1840, and served with the Union army during the war between the states. John Loftus was born in Indiana, where he was reared and educated, and as a youth mastered the trade of blacksmith, which he has followed throughout life. For the greater part of his career he has resided in Indiana, being now a resident of Moores Hill, but for a time followed his trade at Cincinnati, Ohio, and elsewhere. He married Miss Anna Heustis, who was born in Indiana, a daughter of William P. Heustis, one of the most prominent men of Moores Hill and Sparta. He was a leading business man and banker, a soldier of the Union during the war between the states, and for a long period an office holder, being a justice of the peace for thirty or more years.
The only child of his parents, Wilbur L. Loftus acquired his education in the public schools of New Albany, and upon completing the grade school course started working, at the age of fourteen years, as an office boy. He then became connected in office work activities with an automobile concern, and eventually was advanced to the sales department, which brought him into close connection with many of the leading citizens of the city. It was thus that he realized the opportunities of the real estate and insurance business, and in 1927 purchased the interest of the senior member of the firm of Cochran & La Duc, the firm then becoming, as now, Loftus & La Duc, with large and commodious offices at 347 Vincennes Street. This concern, which deals in a general line of real estate and insurance, has enjoyed a constantly-increasing success, employing five persons and being one of the largest enterprises of its kind in the city.
Mr. Loftus is a member of the board of directors of the New Albany Real Estate Board, a member of the National Real Estate Board and the New Albany Chamber of Commerce, and a participant in all movements making for the betterment and advancement of his adopted city. He belongs to the Elks and the New Albany Country Club, is unmarried, and resides at 1119 East Oak Street.
INDIANA ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS OF AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT Vol. 5
By Charles Roll, A.M.
The Lewis Publishing Company, 1931
CLYDE D. LA MEE, general manager for the General Electric Supply Company at Indianapolis, is a southern man by birth and had his early experience in the electrical industry in the South until he was transferred in his responsibilities to Indianapolis.
He was born at Green Cove Springs, Florida; December 11, 1897, son of William S. and Edna (Gresham) La Mee. His father, a native of Fort George Island, Florida, is a refrigerating engineer, now located at Palatka, Florida.
Clyde D. La Mee was educated in grade and high schools and attended Stetson University of Deland, Florida. He began his business career as an office boy with the Florida Electric Company and had a steady succession of promotions until reaching the post of vice president and general manager. In August, 1928, he came to Indianapolis to take up his duties as general manager for the General Electric Supply Company, located at 326 West Georgia Street.
Mr. La Mee married, January 10, 1923, Miss Winifred Browning, who was born at Francis, Florida, daughter of Samuel Stanton and Margaret (Webster) Browning. They have one daughter, Winifred, born March 6, 1924.
Mr. La Mee, from August to December, 1918, was with the Students Army Training Corps, training for service in the aviation branch of the army. He is an independent voter in politics, is a member of the Columbia Club of Indianapolis, is a thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason, also belongs to the Shrine and Grotto. He is a member of the Episcopal Church and his wife is a Methodist.
INDIANA ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS OF AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT Vol. 5
By Charles Roll, A.M.
The Lewis Publishing Company, 1931
